DPP slams KMT, Ma for failing to reform pensions

‘PSEUDO REFORMS’:：The DPP caucus said the government was not committed to real pension reform, as seen in the only temporary freezing of civil servants’ yearly bonuses

By Chris Wang / Staff reporter

Tue, Jan 08, 2013 - Page 3

The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) insistence on resuming the distribution of year-end bonuses for retired civil servants next year and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) refusal to call a national affairs conference have proven that neither are serious about reforming the pension system, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said yesterday.

“Ma has unilaterally imposed his own will on more than 78 percent of Taiwanese, who — according to a recent survey — support the convening of a national affairs conference to dicuss reforming the pension system and the economy. Ma has forgotten that he is the beneficiary of such a national affairs conference held in 1991,” DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said at a press event.

The 1991 conference terminated the period of authoritarianism, abolished the non-elected National Assembly, and laid down the foundation for an elected parliament and a directly elected president, Pan said.

“The conference is the reason why Ma is in the Presidential Office today,” Pan said.

However, the president has categorically said that calling such a conference now is unnecessary because more than 100 seminars have already been held across the country to hear the public’s opinions on pension reform, which, in Ma’s words, is more than enough.

The KMT caucus reached a resolution on the controversial year-end bonuses for retired civil servants, which will be resumed next year after being suspended this year.

The caucus also blocked a special report scheduled to be delivered by Vice Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) on pension reform to the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday.

Ma has pledged to submit a comprehensive plan on pension reform by the end of this month, but Huang said he has lied about every plan he has promised, including the reorganization of the Executive Yuan, the distribution of year-end bonuses and pension system reform.

The number of government employees has increased after the reorganization and the year-end bonusese are to be suspended for only one year, not canceled, Huang said, adding that Ma has repeatedly refused to listened to the people’s demands on reforming the pension system.